Despite Oculus Summer of Rift Sales, HTC Isn’t Budging

Unlike Oculus, which has lowered its prices and launched the “Summer of Rift” promotional campaign, for HTC, dropping the Vive price is not on the agenda.

With an estimated value of $3.7 billion USD in 2016, the VR market is projected to reach over $28 billion USD by 2020. This exponential growth of the VR market will be driven by hardware rather than software.

Although Cheaper, the Oculus Rift Sells Less Than HTC Vive

According to sales figures for VR headsets since the beginning of the year (via SuperData), HTC Vive sold 95,000 units and the Oculus Rift 64,000 units.

The Rift is still lagging behind the Vive despite its cheaper price tag, which will drop again soon. This should remain the same for the rest of the year, however, as SuperData projects 553,000 and 346,000 units to be sold, respectively for the Vive and the Rift.

Analysts don’t think prices play a big part in this situation.

Oculus is an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) whose parent company, Facebook, is more of a digital company. Getting their primary piece of hardware off the ground and deliver it proved to be a tough challenge, that’s why Oculus hired Fitbit’s Hans Hartmann, as its new COO (Chief Operating Officer).

In addition to this, Oculus has been getting bad press with its ongoing $500 million USD lawsuit with game developer ZeniMax, which accuses Oculus of copyright infringement.

Oculus Launches Summer of Rift; HTC Won’t Budge

As the Rift is struggling to catch up with sales of HTC Vive since its launch, Oculus recently announced a big drop in price, passing its bundle with the Oculus Touch from $798 dollars to $598 dollars.

Like last year, Oculus celebrates the arrival of summer with Summer of Rift promotions on its application store for Oculus Rift but also for the Gear VR.

The “Summer of Rift” launched On June 16th and will last until July 5th, with more than 30 games and apps getting price discounts of up to 60%. Each day, special one-day promotions will also be offered for 24 hours.

Despite these attractive discounts from Oculus, HTC doesn’t seem to be overly concerned and doesn’t intend to lower the price of Vive which continues to receive a strong showing in the market. HTC believes in the value and strength of its VR ecosystem, and won’t budge on its somewhat more expensive price tag.

HTC also thinks the Vive is far superior to the Oculus Rift, offering the best room-scale available in the market (11.5 x 11.5 ft against 5×5 ft for the Rift).